Love Me Now

Chapter 3

"Father."

I greeted him and kissed him on the cheeks. "Arianna. Please sit."

We were on the large dining table. By large, I mean twenty people could eat here. My father was sitting at his rightful place, at the end of the oval table. And my place is at his right side. I looked at him and he seemed like he was a thousand years older. "What's wrong, father?" He sighed and took a sip of his drink. "Hunters have been found in our borders." I gasped. "What? How is this possible?" I silently prayed Caine wasn't one of them. He was still silent. "Father? What aren't you telling me?" He looked at me with pure horror on his face, and never have I ever seen him like this. "Hunters' bodies, Arianna. I don't know how many are there. But one identified was a Maxima." All the air in my body was sucked out. I couldn't breathe, and my heart started to pound really hard against my chest. My soulmate.

"I do not know who did it, but the Maximas blamed it on me. Someone wants to start a war and throw me out of our coven. I can feel it, Arianna." The coven was my father's home. Everyone was treated as family, and someone is conspiring against him. That was his fear, that someone he loved would turn his/her back against him. I tried thinking straight, but I can't. My mind is on Caine's. I can't help thinking of the worst.

No... Please, no.

"I assure you, father. Whoever is doing the killings will have a punishment far worse than death." I kept my emotions in check, so as not to make my father suspicious. I stood up from my chair and left. I shifted away and found myself at the borders. No one was guarding. It was strange. I guess this was why Caine had easily crossed our territory. I took a sniff in the air and a faint smell of blood was evident.

I followed the scent and there. A pile of bodies. Dead bodies. I whimpered. "Caine." I sniffed for Caine's scent, and thanked the heavens, his scent isn't here. I breathed a sigh of relief. But as soon as I did, horror struck my face. Who could have done this? First, the murder of my mother, and now this. Someone wants to start a war between hunters and vampires. Who would want to overthrow my father? I examined one of the bodies piled up. I tilted the corpse's head and surely, there were bite marks. Someone drained their blood. But certainly, no one could ever consume this much blood. I left the scene since it was too much to take in.

I need to find Caine. I looked for his scent, and there, I caught a whiff of him not too far from here. Dawn was almost breaking. "Caine?" His back was turned to me. And I could feel his agony. "I heard a Maxima was murdered. Are you alright?" He turned to me, red-eyed. "It's all my fault. I... I shouldn't have left." I heard his voice breaking, and his unshed tears broke out. "No... It wasn't my fault. It's yours!" He shouted, and a pang of pain made its way to my chest. My eyes widened. "What?" I couldn't believe his accusation.

"It's your fault! If it wasn't for this soulmate thing I wouldn't be here, and my brother would've still be alive. And your father..."

He had a sinister look on his face, and the hairs in the back of my neck stood up. "You and your father will pay for this." I can't believe what I was hearing. He was blaming me and my father. Anger filled my system. I shifted, grabbed him by the neck, and pinned him to the nearest tree. The monster in me wants to come out, and I let her. "Are you threatening me? Me? Of all the vampires you could have threatened, you'd choose me? You do know you're just a puny little human, don't you?" He struggled to get out of my hold but he miserably failed. "Do that again, and I swear to God, you will suffer a fate worse than death, Maxima." I let him go and shifted a few feet away from him, turning my back on him. "I don't care if you are my soulmate. Threaten my father again and I'll eliminate your kind."

I shifted back to the manor and found myself in my room. I closed the blinds since the sun was coming up. It was getting harder to breathe. I sat down on the edge of my four poster bed and steadied my breathing. I wanted to investigate who did this, but I was too hurt. I couldn't move. And then I felt my heart stop beating for a millisecond. It was painful. I realized, it has started.

I only have a week to make things right.

~

Hey, there. If you're reading this, then I'm eternally grateful. Please comment what you think or whatever. And umm, please vote, and share. Thank you so much. 

Lots of love,

Chelsa.